This story is about breast cancer. I know for some it might be difficult if not impossible to read. I understand. I’m not one who likes to give or get spoilers but there are times when they are appropriate. Should you need to know any details before you make the decision to read this please contact me.

Chapter Nineteen

Thursday, February 2, 2006

For Jim and Trixie, the next few days were a blur of pain, discomfort, and stress. Trixie kept insisting that Jim go into work and that she would be okay, but before Jim could even get his teeth brushed in the morning Trixie was sitting at the toilet, resting her head on it, wishing her entire insides would just leave her.

For the most part, they were just dry heaves, as she could get very little into her stomach. Her stomach muscles ached from the spasms. Just when she thought she would be able to lie in a more comfortable place, she would start all over again. When she could think at all, Trixie just got frustrated. She hated the physical discomfort, but it was the stress on Jim and her family that bothered her the most.

On Monday night, Matthew and Maddie had taken the children until it was bedtime. The Wheelers had volunteered to keep them overnight, but Trixie had insisted she needed to see them. Jim was concerned about how the children would react to seeing their mother so ill. After weighing all of his concerns, and making a call for encouragement to Brian, Jim decided maybe it would be best for the children to spend the night in their own beds.

The entire family pitched in to help out wherever they were needed, but it was Jim who was by Trixie’s side day and night. He had temporarily moved his office down to the house so that when Trixie was resting he could try and get some work done. Brenda, Mart and all of the staff tried to pick up the slack, but Jim’s absence at the school was noticeable.

By Thursday morning, Trixie still hadn’t really been able to keep down anything more than a little water and Gatorade. Brian and Honey had volunteered to take Jenny to daycare that day. Of course, they had the ulterior motive of checking to see how both Trixie and Jim were doing.

Armed with coffee, juice, and bagels, Brian and Honey knocked on the door of Ten Acres and then entered. When Jim came down the stairs to greet them he looked awful. He hadn’t showered or shaved in two days; it looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep in about three days.

“Jim, how are you doing?” Brian asked.

“Trixie’s upstairs. Her stomach finally stopped heaving for a few minutes so I convinced her to rest in our bed instead of the bathroom floor.”

Brian gripped Jim’s shoulders and asked again, “Jim, I didn’t ask about Trixie. I want to know how you’re doing.”

Jim took a deep breath, and because it was his best friend and his sister in the room, answered simply and honestly, “Not well.”

Honey embraced Jim and then guided him toward the kitchen table. “When was the last time you ate a decent meal?” she asked.

“Moms brought over some baked chicken and mashed potatoes last night,” Jim replied. He placed his elbows on the table and his head in his hands pulling on his red hair with worry.

“But did you eat any?” Honey persisted.

“I think I remember having a bite or two,” Jim said sheepishly.

“Jim, you’ve got to start taking better care of yourself. You won’t do anybody any good if you get yourself sick,” Honey scolded. She reached over and put an arm around his shoulders to soften her words.

Brian had remained in the doorway, torn between helping Jim and checking on Trixie. “You stay down here with Honey and eat some breakfast. I’m going to check on Trixie. I want you to eat at least one bagel and drink a huge glass of orange juice.”

Jim looked up, tried his best to smile, and said, “Yes, Moms.”

When Brian entered Trixie and Jim’s bedroom he was a little concerned. Despite being closed, Trixie’s eyes looked sunken and there were dark circles under them. Even in sleep she looked uncomfortable. Ever the doctor he went over to take her pulse and noticed that she was getting dehydrated.

“Trix,” he said. Gently he touched her shoulder to awaken her.

Slowly Trixie opened her eyes and looked up. She tried to smile but it seemed to take too much effort. “Hi, Brian,” she whispered.

“Not feeling so hot, are you?” he asked sympathetically.

“I think I’d feel better dead,” she replied.

Brian crouched down so that Trixie wouldn’t have to strain to look at him. “Speaking as your brother and not a doctor, I think maybe you should go into the clinic today.” Trixie started to protest but Brian stopped her. “You’re starting to get dehydrated. If you go in this morning you can be home tonight. If you wait, you might end up with an overnight stay.”

Trixie knew that Brian was right, but the thought of making the effort to get ready defeated her.

Sensing that might be the problem Brian suggested. “Honey’s here with me. Why don’t I send her up and she can help you get ready. She can help get you washed and dressed.” That seemed to appease Trixie a little bit. If the clinic could do something to make her feel better it was worth the struggle to get there.

“While Honey is helping you, I’m going to throw your husband in the shower. He looks like death warmed over himself. Then we’ll take you to the clinic. How does that sound?”

Trixie just nodded her head and rolled over, trying to will herself the strength to get up.

Before he entered the kitchen again, Brian made a quick call to his parent’s home. He knew they were worried about how Trixie was reacting to everything. Arrangements were made for Moms to come over and take Jenny to daycare. When school let out she and Peter would ensure that someone would meet the kids off of the bus and someone would pick up Stella and Jenny at the daycare.

Brian walked into the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to see that Jim had actually fallen asleep at the table. “How’s it going?” he whispered to Honey.

“Well, once he got some food in his system and knew that someone was there for Trixie he just crashed.” Honey went over and wrapped her arms around Brian. “It breaks my heart to see both of them suffering so much.”

“I’ve convinced Trixie to go into the clinic. She’s getting dehydrated and she needs some nutrition. An IV and maybe a blood transfusion will do wonders for her.”

Honey sighed in relief, “I’m so glad she agreed to go. Did she put up much of a fight?”

“Well, her only concern was the effort it will take to get ready to go. I told her I’d send you up to do that.”

As Honey moved to the stairs she asked, “And what are you going to do?”

“Moms is on her way over to pick up Jenny. She and Dad are going to make sure that the kids are taken care of this afternoon. Once Jenny’s gone, I’m going to dump Jim into the shower and get him cleaned up.”

“Well, we better get to our assigned tasks.”

Brian decided to let Jim sleep while he waited for Moms. In the meantime, he made a quick call to the clinic to let them know they would be in later in the morning.

It didn’t take Moms long to get to Ten Acres and pick up Jenny. She would have liked to have spoken with Trixie or Jim, but after a quick word to Brian she took Jenny and left.

Brian walked back into the kitchen and went over to Jim to wake him up. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty. You smell. It’s shower time.”

Jim groaned and tried to brush Brian’s hand away from him. “Leave me alone,” Jim protested.

“Come on, Jim,” Brian prodded. “Trixie has agreed to go into the clinic. She’s starting to dehydrate.” Immediately Jim sat up. “Don’t panic, Jim. It’s pretty common for patients on chemo to dehydrate. They’ll probably administer an I.V. and she’ll be able to go home.”

Jim started to head upstairs wanting to reassure himself that Trixie was doing fine. Brian grabbed him by the arm. “Let me go, Brian,” he said. “Trixie needs me.”

“Trixie needs you healthy, Jim. You’ve got to take care of yourself. Honey’s getting Trixie ready, and it’s my job to make sure you get cleaned up.”

Jim stopped in his tracks and faced Brian. He paused and then said, “Thanks, Brian. I needed that.”

A half an hour later both Jim and Trixie had washed up and were dressed. Just that act had helped both of them feel a little better.

In the end, Honey decided to stay back at the house while Brian took Jim and Trixie into town. A plan was materializing and she could get it organized while they were gone.

The first thing she did was to call Mart to update him. They both agreed that unless it was a major catastrophe no one from the school would call Jim until Monday morning. Fortunately, there weren’t a lot of extracurricular activities planned for the weekend. Standardized testing was scheduled to begin on Monday and the staff wanted all students to get plenty of rest.

Shortly after Honey’s conversation with Mart the phone rang. It was Diana.

“Honey, Mart said you called but all he said was that we weren’t supposed to bother Jim until Monday.” Honey could hear the hurt in Diana’s voice.

“Diana, that wasn’t what I asked Mart. Of course you are welcome here. You’re family,” Honey sat down at the kitchen table and took a sip of coffee. “I just asked that unless it was an emergency, no one from the school bother Jim about the school until Monday.”

“I didn’t think that Mart got the story quite correct. What else can we do?”

“Well, the first thing I’m going to do is call Bob and see if he could come over tonight and stay up with Trixie. Brian mentioned that Bob wants to help, but once the baby comes next month he won’t be as readily available. Jim looks awful and I’m afraid if he doesn’t get some sleep and eat decently he will end up in the hospital.”

“I hope Bob can do it. He’s the perfect choice. Except for Jim, he’s the only one who Trixie can tolerate babysitting her when she’s sick. Maybe it’s payback for all of the babysitting Trixie did when Bob was growing up.”

“That’s what I thought as well,” Honey said. Honey had found a paper and pen and had started making a list of things to be done. “I’m going to try to get some cleaning done here. The master bathroom needs a good scrubbing and I’m sure there’s a ton of laundry to be done.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Diana said. “Why don’t I check with Mart and see if there are any upperclassmen that can come down and help. If there’s a lot of laundry we could bring it up here. Within an hour we can have everything in order so the house is fresh when they return.”

Honey hesitated. “I think it’s a great idea, but could you run into trouble with the state because they’d be doing labor?”

“Jim did a lot of research on that several years ago. He wanted the living situation at the school to best mimic a real life situation. That includes doing household chores. Besides if they don’t learn those skills here where will they?”

Honey looked down at the list she had started to make while she was talking to Diana, “Now I need to think of something fun for the kids to do.”

“I noticed Chicken Little is playing at the Cameo Budget screen this weekend. Jill and Jody have been bugging us to take them.”

“That’s a great idea. I just don’t know if tonight would be good since it is a school night.”

“I know that Mart is really feeling like he isn’t carrying his load,” Diana started.

“Not carrying his load?” Honey protested. “The two of you have been the biggest help. You have kept things running at the school so that Jim can be with Trixie.”

“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here,” Diana replied. “I know and you know what Mart has done but you know how he is when it comes to Trixie. Anyway I was going to suggest if it isn’t too crazy at Ten Acres, Mart come over and help Lizzie and Matt with their homework and keep them occupied until bedtime. That will free you and Brian up to spend time with your kids.”

“That’s a great idea. Brian has been so worried about Trixie all week,” Honey commented. “He’s really trying to be more the brother than the doctor but old habits die hard. If we both know Jim and Trixie are in good hands we can spend some relaxing time as a family.”

Honey was about to hang up the phone when she wondered about the movie. “Why don’t we plan to take the older kids to see Chicken Little on Friday night?”

“The kids would love it. Hopefully by then Jim will be ready to join the living again and Trixie will at least been able to hold some food down.”

Honey started to giggle “So who do we hoodwink, oh I mean ask, to take the kids?”

“Well, Peter has always loved those kinds of movies and I spoke with Hallie last night. She mentioned Dan was working tomorrow night. I think they would make a great team.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Honey. “So I’ll make calls to Bob, Peter and Hallie while you round up the troops to do some cleaning.”

When Jim, Trixie and Brian returned from the clinic around three o’clock everyone was surprised by what they saw. Trixie actually looked like she had a little color in her and she didn’t look like she was going to hurl any minute. She still was very weak and sat down at the kitchen table to rest before heading up to her bedroom to lie down.

Jim still looked like a zombie. He could barely keep his eyes open. Despite that, he was attentive to Trixie’s every need. They both noticed someone had been cleaning.

“Honey, how did you manage to spruce this place up so quickly?” Trixie asked.

Honey brought over a glass of juice for Jim and a glass of water for Trixie. “Well, I’d like to say the cleaning fairy came while you were gone, but since we know you really are the cleaning fairy I guess I have to tell you the truth.” Jim and Brian chuckled at Honey’s reference to Trixie’s housecleaning duties of her youth.

“So who did the work then?” asked Jim.

“Well, I spoke with Diana after you left,” Honey started, suddenly a little concerned Jim might not have wanted the students doing light chores for his benefit. “She suggested that the older students may want to help out. The kids have felt like they should be doing more for you and Trixie.”

Jim put his head down on the table and sighed. Honey was immediately on the defensive, ready to speak for the students when Jim said, “What a wonderful thing to do.”

“Well, we had two teams. Mart and I supervised cleaning up down here. The two of us took care of the master suite. We didn’t think that it would be appropriate for the students to have access there. Diana led another group and took all of the laundry up to the school to be washed.”

Both Jim and Trixie sat in awe that their students would take on such tasks without complaining.

“You’ll be happy to know that we didn’t even end up with one pair of pink boxers either.” Honey said. Before he could even think about it Honey continued. “Well, there wasn’t much of a chance of that happening either. I sorted all of the unmentionables out before I sent the laundry up to the school and did that load.”

Jim breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t uncommon for some of the older girls to develop a mild crush on him. He never encouraged them and was careful to always have another person present when he was dealing with any of the students even if it was just Brenda outside his office.

Just then boots could be heard on the steps outside the kitchen door. In trooped Lizzie and Matt followed by Bob and Mart. Both kids’ eyes lit up when they saw their mother sitting at the table and not with her head hanging over the toilet.

Lizzie and Matt rushed over to embrace Trixie, but stopped short when they remembered how sensitive she was. Trixie grabbed each child by the wrist and gently pulled them into a weak hug. After placing a kiss on each of their heads she released them.

Trixie looked over the heads of her two children and into two pairs of blue eyes so similar to hers. “So what brings the all Belden siblings to Ten Acres?” she asked.

“Well, I haven’t gotten to the best part and I do not want to hear one word of complaint from either one of you,” Honey warned. “Bob is going to pay you back for all of those years of babysitting and sit with you tonight. He’s going to hold your hand, wipe your face, offer words of encouragement and if you’re a really good girl, he might read you Peter Rabbit.”

Everyone chuckled at that except Jim. He started to protest.

“You, my dear brother, are going to get some much needed sleep,” Honey continued. “There are fresh sheets on the guest room bed. I know you are partial to your own bed but you are going to spend the night sleeping and not worrying about your lovely wife. After supper you are going to that room and you are not to come out until nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Mart, Bob and Brian got a good chuckle out of how Honey had taken control of the situation.

“Finally, Mart is going to spend the evening here making sure Lizzie and Matt get their homework done. Moms is going to check in later to see how things are going. Jenny will probably stay at Crabapple Farm tonight. Brian and I are going to go home for some family time of our own.”

When Honey finished her dissertation Mart, Bob, and Brian applauded her. Jim and Trixie looked at her in gratitude and awe. Lizzie and Matt looked at everyone and wondered if they all hadn’t gone mad.

The remainder of the evening was very uneventful. Honey and Brian left right away. Mart proved that not only could he consume food he could also prepare it. It wasn’t difficult. All he had to do was heat up some homemade chicken noodle soup, put together a salad, and slice some bread.

The IV and blood transfusion Trixie had seemed to be what she needed to get over the hump. She was able to eat a small bowl of soup and some bread before giving up the struggle to keep her eyes open. Bob helped her upstairs and into her bedroom, for what all hoped would be a good night’s sleep, in her own bed.

Jim helped Mart and the kids clean up the kitchen and then he headed up stairs to the guest bedroom. Without having to worry about Trixie he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

 

 

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